Santa exists.
The other day we took the kids to our mall where we usually visit Santa. We even do the Breakfast with Santa – pancake breakfast as Santa walks around and a magician closes the show – all before the mall opens up. You need to know it’s an old school mall and makes the whole setting kind of simple and special. You also need to know that I am Jewish and am into Buddhism, my wife is Methodist and we belong to a Presbyterian church. Our son Max Abraham just got the idea last night that it would be awesome to celebrate Hanukah and Christmas. He is 3. Max also asked Santa for gun the other day. A real gun – meaning, you know, not stick, something with plastic and makes sounds.
All these interactions with Santa got me to thinking about the role of Santa in our lives. So I decided to do some calls. I figured that Santa must have a unique insight into our human condition and how we are doing today. Santa probably knows our problems real well and our hopes and dreams and all else. What I found was actually not the font of insider information I was looking for, but actually something better. I found out that Santa’s real.
Santa’s real because Santa acts as a reflection a sponge a mirror for all of our hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations. I put poor Santa Larry from Towson, MD through the anthropological interview mill. But Santa Larry’s clear that given his Santa schedule he does not have the time to get into big conversations. Santa Larry consciously does not take mall gigs because he only gets 1-2 minutes with each child and then on to the next. But even in the private events and school gigs he really doesn’t go deep with kids. At schools for example, he’ll hit 15 classrooms in two hours.
But he did light up about just being out and about as Santa and how people honk their horns, wave, want to get their picture taken with him and he just laughed. Then I found out he gives all the money he makes to Santa Claus Anonymous – an organization that provides Santa Claus gift certificates to children in need. The organization started in 1934 in Baltimore, Maryland.
I figured I should talk to more Santas, some Santa must have that psychotherapist angle I am so enamoured by. But all I got was more of the same. Santa Pat (he said just call him Santa Claus everyone does) just got back from a Disney gig and said “I had so much fun I should have paid them!” The only difference with the Santa Pat interview as opposed to Santa Larry, is he did touch on the reality that people do ask him, often in whispers, some very serious requests. Like, “can you bring my dad back?” When he gets these requests he does the best he can to make people feel comfortable. He said to me that “you’d be amazed at what you can come up with when you are put in that position.” And Santa Pat meant that in the best way possible – he feels he helps people in tough situations.
To be a Santa, “you just got to have compassion,” Santa Pat says.
And it’s this comment and the others which makes you realize that Santa’s role is to put up a compassionate and understanding mirror for us to reflect on during this season. The irony is not lost on this newly minted Christmas celebrator. The other major player’s role this season is to do the same for those who wish to follow in his shoes.
So I went out to get this deep introspection from Santas this year and got a different gift. Santa’s real. Santa continues to reflect our hopes and dreams and fears and wishes. If we want him to.
December 1st, 2007 - Posted in Seasonal | |
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